Life of Johnson
Chapter 71 : _Rambler_, No. 208.[668] I have little doubt that this attack on the concluding verse i

_Rambler_, No. 208.

[668] I have little doubt that this attack on the concluding verse is an indirect blow at Hawkins, who had quoted the whole pa.s.sage, and had clearly thought it the more 'awful' on account of the couplet. See Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 291.

[669] In the original _Raleigh's_.

[670] The italics are Boswell's.

[671] Mrs. Williams is probably the person meant. BOSWELL.

[672] 'In 1750, April 5, _Comus_ was played for her benefit. She had so little acquaintance with diversion or gaiety, that she did not know what was intended when a benefit was theatre was offered her. The profits of the night were only 130, though Dr. Newton brought a large contribution; and 20 were given by Tonson, a man who is to be praised as often as he is named.... This was the greatest benefaction that _Paradise Lost_ ever procured the author's descendants; and to this he who has now attempted to relate his life had the honour of contributing a Prologue.' Johnson's _Works, vii. 118_. In the _Gent. Mag_. (xx. 152) we read that, as on 'April 4, the night first appointed, many in convenient circ.u.mstances happened to disappoint the hopes of success, the managers generously quitted the profits of another night, in which the theatre was expected to be fuller. Mr. Samuel Johnson's prologue was afterwards printed for Mrs. Foster's benefit.'

[673] Johnson is thinking of Pope's lines--

'But still the great have kindness in reserve, He helped to bury whom he helped to starve.'

Prologue to the _Satires_, 1. 247. In the _Life of Milton_ he writes:--'In our time a monument has been erected in Westminster Abbey _To the author of Paradise Lost_ by Mr. Benson, who has in the inscription bestowed more words upon himself than upon Milton.'

Johnson's _Works_, vii. 112. Pope has a hit at Benson in the _Dunciad_, iii. 325:--

'On poets' tombs see Benson's t.i.tles writ!'

Moore, describing Sheridan's funeral, says:--'It was well remarked by a French Journal, in contrasting the penury of Sheridan's latter years with the splendour of his funeral, that "France is the place for a man of letters to live in, and England the place for him to die in."' Moore himself wrote:--

'How proud they can press to the funeral array Of him whom they shunned in his sickness and sorrow-- How bailiffs may seize his last blanket to-day, Whose pall shall be held up by n.o.bles to-morrow.'

Moore's _Sheridan_, ii. 460-2.

[674] Johnson's _Works_, i. 115.

[675] Among the advertis.e.m.e.nts in the _Gent. Mag_. for February of this year is the following:--'_An elegy wrote in a country churchyard, 6d_.'

[676] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 17, 1773.

[677] 'Lest there should be any person, at any future period, absurd enough to suspect that Johnson was a partaker in Lauder's fraud, or had any knowledge of it, when he a.s.sisted him with his masterly pen, it is proper here to quote the words of Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of Salisbury, at the time when he detected the imposition. 'It is to be hoped, nay it is _expected_, that the elegant and nervous writer, whose judicious sentiments and inimitable style point out the authour of Lauder's Preface and Postscript, will no longer allow one to _plume himself with his feathers_, who appeareth so little to deserve [his] a.s.sistance: an a.s.sistance which I am persuaded would never have been communicated, had there been the least suspicion of those facts which I have been the instrument of conveying to the world in these sheets.' _Milton no Plagiary_, 2nd edit. p. 78. And his Lords.h.i.+p has been pleased now to authorise me to say, in the strongest manner, that there is no ground whatever for any unfavourable reflection against Dr. Johnson, who expressed the strongest indignation against Lauder. BOSWELL. To this letter Lauder had the impudence to add a shameless postscript and some 'testimonies' concerning himself. Though on the face of it it is evident that this postscript is not by Johnson, yet it is included in his works (v. 283). The letter was dated Dec. 20, 1750. In the _Gent. Mag_. for the next month (xxi. 47) there is the following paragraph:--'Mr. Lauder confesses here and exhibits all his forgeries; for which he a.s.signs one motive in the book, and after asking pardon a.s.signs another in the postscript; he also takes an opportunity to publish several letters and testimonials to his former character.' Goldsmith in Retaliation has a hit at Lauder:--

'Here Douglas retires from his toils to relax, The scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks.

New Lauders and Bowers the Tweed shall cross over, No countryman living their tricks to discover.'

Dr. Douglas was afterwards Bishop of Salisbury (_ante_, p. 127). See _post_, June 25, 1763, for the part he took in exposing the c.o.c.k Lane Ghost imposture.

[678] Scott writing to Southey in 1810 said:--'A witty rogue the other day, who sent me a letter signed Detector, proved me guilty of stealing a pa.s.sage from one of Vida's Latin poems, which I had never seen or heard of.' The pa.s.sage alleged to be stolen ends with,--

'When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou!'

which in Vida _ad Eranen. El_. ii. v. 21, ran,--

'c.u.m dolor atque supercilio gravis imminet angor, Fungeris angelico sola ministerio.'

'It is almost needless to add,' says Mr. Lockhart, 'there are no such lines.' _Life of Scott_, iii. 294.

[679] The greater part of this Preface was given in the _Gent. Mag_. for August 1747 (xvii. 404).

[680] 'Persuasive' is scarcely a fit description for this n.o.ble outburst of indignation on the part of one who knew all the miseries of poverty.

After quoting Dr. Newton's account of the distress to which Milton's grand-daughter had been reduced, he says:--'That this relation is true cannot be questioned: but surely the honour of letters, the dignity of sacred poetry, the spirit of the English nation, and the glory of human nature require--that it should be true no longer.... In an age, which amidst all its vices and all its follies has not become infamous for want of charity, it may be surely allowed to hope, that the living remains of Milton will be no longer suffered to languish in distress.'

Johnson's _Works_, v. 270.

[681] Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 275.

[682] In the original _retrospection_. Johnson's _Works_, v. 268.

[683] In this same year Johnson thus ends a severe criticism on _Samson Agonistes_: 'The everlasting verdure of Milton's laurels has nothing to fear from the blasts of malignity; nor can my attempt produce any other effect than to strengthen their shoots by lopping their luxuriance.'

_The Rambler_, No. 140. 'Mr. Nichols shewed Johnson in 1780 a book called _Remarks on Johnson's Life of Milton_, in which the affair of Lauder was renewed with virulence. He read the libellous pa.s.sage with attention, and instantly wrote on the margin:--"In the business of Lauder I was deceived; partly by thinking the man too frantic to be fraudulent.'" Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 66.

[684] 'Johnson turned his house,' writes Lord Macaulay, 'into a place of refuge for a crowd of wretched old creatures who could find no other asylum; nor could all their peevishness and ingrat.i.tude weary out his benevolence' (_Essays_, i. 390). In his _Biography of Johnson_ (p. 388) he says that Mrs. Williams's 'chief recommendations were her blindness and her poverty.' No doubt in Johnson's letters to Mrs. Thrale are found amusing accounts of the discord of the inmates of his house. But it is abundantly clear that in Mrs. Williams's company he had for years found pleasure. A few months after her death he wrote to Mrs. Thrale: 'You have more than once wondered at my complaint of solitude, when you hear that I am crowded with visits. _Inopem me copia fecit_. Visitors are no proper companions in the chamber of sickness.... The amus.e.m.e.nts and consolations of languor and depression are conferred by familiar and domestic companions.... Such society I had with Levett and Williams'

(_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 341). To Mrs. Montagu he wrote:--'Thirty years and more she had been my companion, and her death has left me very desolate' (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 739). Boswell says that 'her departure left a blank in his house' (_post_, Aug. 1783). 'By her death,' writes Murphy, 'he was left in a state of dest.i.tution, with n.o.body but his black servant to soothe his anxious moments' (Murphy's _Johnson_, p.

122). Hawkins (_Life_, p. 558) says that 'she had not only cheered him in his solitude, and helped him to pa.s.s with comfort those hours which otherwise would have been irksome to him, but had relieved him from domestic cares, regulated and watched over the expenses of his house, etc.' 'She had,' as Boswell says (_post_, Aug. 1783), 'valuable qualities.' 'Had she had,' wrote Johnson, 'good humour and prompt elocution, her universal curiosity and comprehensive knowledge would have made her the delight of all that knew her' (_Piozzi Letters_, ii.

311). To Langton he wrote:--'I have lost a companion to whom I have had recourse for domestic amus.e.m.e.nt for thirty years, and whose variety of knowledge never was exhausted' (_post_, Sept. 29, 1783). 'Her acquisitions,' he wrote to Dr. Burney, 'were many and her curiosity universal; so that she partook of every conversation' (_post_, Sept.

1783). Murphy (_Life_ p. 72) says:--'She possessed uncommon talents, and, though blind, had an alacrity of mind that made her conversation agreeable, and even desirable.' According to Hawkins (_Life_, 322-4) 'she had acquired a knowledge of French and Italian, and had made great improvements in literature. She was a woman of an enlightened understanding. Johnson in many exigencies found her an able counsellor, and seldom shewed his wisdom more than when he hearkened to her advice.'

Perhaps Johnson had her in his thoughts when, writing of Pope's last years and Martha Blount, he said:--'Their acquaintance began early; the life of each was pictured on the other's mind; their conversation therefore was endearing, for when they met there was an immediate coalition of congenial notions.' (Johnson's _Works_, viii. 304.) Miss Mulso (Mrs. Chapone) writing to Mrs. Carter in 1753, says:--'I was charmed with Mr. Johnson's behaviour to Mrs. Williams, which was like that of a fond father to his daughter. She shewed very good sense, with a great deal of modesty and humility; and so much patience and cheerfulness under her misfortune that it doubled my concern for her'

(_Mrs. Chapone's Life_, p. 73). Miss Talbot wrote to Mrs. Carter in 1756:--'My mother the other day fell in love with your friend, Mrs.

Williams, whom we met at Mr. Richardson's [where Miss Mulso also had met her], and is particularly charmed with the sweetness of her voice'

(Talbot and Carter _Corresp_. ii. 221). Miss Talbot was a niece of Lord Chancellor Talbot. Hannah More wrote in 1774:--'Mrs. Williams is engaging in her manners; her conversation lively and entertaining'

(More's _Memoirs_, i.49). Boswell, however, more than once complains that she was 'peevish' (_post_, Oct. 26, 1769 and April 7, 1776). At a time when she was very ill, and had gone into the country to try if she could improve her health, Johnson wrote:--'Age, and sickness, and pride have made her so peevish, that I was forced to bribe the maid to stay with her by a secret stipulation of half-a-crown a week over her wages'

(_post_, July 22, 1777). Malone, in a note on August 2, 1763, says that he thinks she had of her own 'about 35 or 40 a year.' This was in her latter days; Johnson had prevailed on Garrick to give her a benefit and Mrs. Montagu to give her a pension. She used, he adds, to help in the house-work.

[685] March 14. See _ante_, p. 203, note 1. He had grown weary of his work. In the last _Rambler_ but one he wrote: 'When once our labour has begun, the comfort that enables us to endure it is the prospect of its end.... He that is himself weary will soon weary the public. Let him therefore lay down his employment, whatever it be, who can no longer exert his former activity or attention; let him not endeavour to struggle with censure, or obstinately infest the stage, till a general hiss commands him to depart.'

[686] How successful an imitator Hawkesworth was is shewn by the following pa.s.sage in the Carter and Talbot _Corresp_., ii. 109:--'I discern Mr. Johnson through all the papers that are not marked A, as evidently as if I saw him through the keyhole with the pen in his hand.'

[687] In the _Rambler_ for Feb. 25 of this year (No. 203) he wrote in the following melancholy strain:--'Every period of life is obliged to borrow its happiness from the time to come. In youth we have nothing past to entertain us, and in age we derive little from retrospect but hopeless sorrow. Yet the future likewise has its limits which the imagination dreads to approach, but which we see to be not far distant.

The loss of our friends and companions impresses hourly upon us the necessity of our own departure; we know that the schemes of man are quickly at an end, that we must soon lie down in the grave with the forgotten mult.i.tudes of former ages, and yield our place to others, who, like us, shall be driven a while by hope or fear about the surface of the earth, and then like us be lost in the shades of death.' In _Prayers and Meditations_, pp. 12-15, in a service that he used on May 6, 'as preparatory to my return to life to-morrow,' he prays:--'Enable me to begin and perfect that reformation which I promised her, and to persevere in that resolution which she implored Thee to continue, in the purposes which I recorded in Thy sight when she lay dead before me.' See _post_, Jan. 20, 1780. The author of _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Johnson_, 1785, says, p. 113, that on the death of his wife, 'to walk the streets of London was for many a lonesome night Johnson's constant subst.i.tute for sleep.'

[688] 'I have often been inclined to think that, if this fondness of Johnson for his wife was not dissembled, it was a lesson that he had learned by rote, and that, when he practised it, he knew not where to stop till he became ridiculous.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 313

[689] The son of William Strahan, M.P., 'Johnson's old and constant friend, Printer to His Majesty' (_post_, under April 20, 1781). He attended Johnson on his death-bed, and published the volume called _Prayers and Meditations_.

[690] Southey in his _Life of Wesley_, i. 359, writes:--'The universal attention which has been paid to dreams in all ages proves that the superst.i.tion is natural; and I have heard too many well-attested facts (facts to which belief could not be refused upon any known laws of evidence) not to believe that impressions are sometimes made in this manner, and forewarnings communicated, which cannot be explained by material philosophy or mere metaphysics.'

[691] Warburton in his _Divine Legation_, i. 284, quotes the 'famous sepulchral inscription of the Roman widow.' 'Ita peto vos Manes sanctissimi commendatum habeatis meum conjugem et velitis huic indulgentissimi esse horis nocturnis ut eum videam,' etc.

[692] Mrs. Boswell died in June 1789. Johnson's prayer with Boswell's comments on it was first inserted in the _Additions_ to the second edition.

[693] Mrs. Johnson died on March 17, O. S., or March 28, N. S. The change of style was made in September, 1752. He might have kept either the 17th, or the 28th as the anniversary. In like manner, though he was born on Sept. 7, after the change he kept the 18th as his birth-day. See _post_, beginning of 1753, where he writes, 'Jan. 1, N. S., which I shall use for the future.'

[694] In _Prayers and Meditations_, p. 22, he recorded: 'The melancholy of this day hung long upon me.' P. 53: 'April 22, 1764, Thought on Tetty, dear, poor Tetty, with my eyes full.' P. 91: 'March 28, 1770.

This is the day on which, in 1752, I was deprived of poor, dear Tetty.... When I recollect the time in which we lived together, my grief for her departure is not abated; and I have less pleasure in any good that befalls me because she does not partake it.' P. 170: 'April 20, 1778. Poor Tetty, whatever were our faults and failings, we loved each other. I did not forget thee yesterday [Easter Sunday]. Couldest thou have lived!' P. 210: 'March 28, 1782. This is the day on which, in 1752, dear Tetty died. I have now uttered a prayer of repentance and contrition; perhaps Tetty knows that I prayed for her. Perhaps Tetty is now praying for me. G.o.d help me.' In a letter to Mrs. Thrale on the occasion of the death of her son (dated March 30, 1776) he thus refers to the loss of his wife:--'I know that a whole system of hopes, and designs, and expectations is swept away at once, and nothing left but bottomless vacuity. What you feel I have felt, and hope that your disquiet will be shorter than mine.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 310. In a letter to Mr. Elphinston, who had just lost his wife, written on July 27, 1778, he repeats the same thought:--'A loss such as yours lacerates the mind, and breaks the whole system of purposes and hopes. It leaves a dismal vacuity in life, which affords nothing on which the affections can fix, or to which endeavour may be directed. All this I have known.'

Croker's _Boswell_, p. 66, note. See also _post_, his letter to Mr.

Warton of Dec. 21, 1754, and to Dr. Lawrence of Jan. 20, 1780.

[695] In the usual monthly list of deaths in the _Gent. Mag_. her name is not given. Johnson did not, I suppose, rank among 'eminent persons.'